NCAA Indoor Men — Gators Chomp Again

March 12, 2019by Bob Hersh

Ubiquitous Grant Holloway took a bite out of the American Record in the 60 hurdles. (ERROL ANDERSON/THE SPORTING IMAGE)

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA, March 08-09—The USTFCCCA’s premeet rankings showed Texas Tech on top at the NCAA Men’s Indoor Championships, with Florida close behind and no other team really close. The Red Raiders had 15 accepted entries, and many of them were of high quality, but Florida had 13 entries and they, too, were loaded with top-end talent.

Tech Coach Wes Kittley saw it this way: “If you look at us and Florida, we’re relatively even on paper. But we’ve just got to take care of us. We’ve got to go into this meet and be confident like we have all season. I think if we’re focused and just taking care of us, we’re going to be hard to beat.”

But he knew—and Florida head Mike Holloway knew—that a lot would depend on the sprints, where most of Texas Tech’s points were concentrated, but where Florida had strength too, most notably in the presence of Grant Holloway (no relation), who would be attempting an ambitious 60/60H/LJ triple in addition to a possible leg on the 4×4. Coach H was not overly concerned about relying on sprinter/hurdler/jumper H. “If Grant’s not in shape to run a couple of 60’s and take 4–6 long jumps, then I haven’t done my job,” he said.

As it turned out, the potential Gator/Red Raider nailbiter fell apart on the first day, when Tech’s Andrew Hudson—who was tabbed for 11 points based on the seed lists, failed to qualify for the final of either the 60 or the 200. “That did not help us,” said Kittley.

The Red Raiders’ other sprint star, Divine Oduduru, did win the 200 final on Saturday, but finished only 7th in the 60, and the sprint shortfalls doomed not only their challenge for the title but also a place on the team podium.

Meanwhile, Florida was doing well. Not only did Grant Holloway pick up 26 points, but other Gators also met or exceeded expectation. Most notable among them was soph Hakim Sani Brown, who equaled the Japanese 60 record of 6.54 in his heat and then ran 6.55 in the final to take 2nd behind Holloway’s list-leading 6.50. In addition, the Gators scored in three field events in which they had not been among the top 8 seeds.

Unheralded Tyrell Richard moved to No. 5 on the all-time world 400 list with his 44.82. (KIRBY LEE/IMAGE OF SPORT)

The result of all of these solid performances was that after 12 events (of 17), Florida had already clinched a successful defense. It was Coach Holloway’s fifth NCAA Indoor title, matching the number posted by UTEP’s Ted Banks. Only Arkansas legend John McDonnell, with an amazing 19, ever won more. The Gator head was pleased, not only by the fact that his team won, but also by how they won it: “I took a little offense about people saying that we were a one-man band. We’re not. I’m proud and happy for the rest of the guys who showed up and helped us win this title.”

Behind Florida’s 55 points, Houston (44) ended up clinching 2nd with a victory in the final event of the program, the 4×4, while 3rd-place LSU (31) had a botched baton pass and didn’t finish. The Cougars, which had been only 6th in the USTFCCCA ratings, had no individual victories but got runner-up finishes from Kahmari Montgomery (400) and Trumaine Jefferson (LJ).

In addition to Holloway, there were two other successful doublers. North Dakota State senior Payton Otterdahl won the shot with a first-round toss of 71-2¾ (21.71), 4 inches short of his recent Collegiate Record but still the No. 4 collegiate performance ever. He then upped his PR in the weight to 79-1¼ (24.11), improving his claim to the No. 4 spot on the all-time collegiate list in that event.

The distance races were swept by Wisconsin’s Morgan McDonald, a fifth-year senior from Australia. McDonald, who won the NCAA XC in November, outkicked Colorado’s Joe Klecker to win the 5000 in 13:41.76 on Friday night, immediately following the women’s 5000, also won by a Badger, making Wisconsin the first school ever to win both 5000s at the meet.

McDonald then came back to take the 3000 on Saturday in 7:52.85, holding off Stanford’s Grant Fisher, the NCAA outdoor 5000 champion who had beaten him in the Millrose 3000 a month ago. Klecker finished 3rd. With this race, McDonald became the fifth man in the past six years with NCAA indoor 3000/5000 double victories. “I did have in my head the fact that at Millrose Grant got ahead of me and was hard to go around on the last lap” said McDonald, explaining why he took the lead here with three laps to go. He then saved enough to hold off Fisher’s finishing kick, running his last lap in 26.32, even faster than the 26.47 he had closed with in the 5000.

For Fisher, the 3000 completed a double disappointment. On Friday, he had been outkicked on the anchor leg of the distance medley relay by Notre Dame’s Yared Nuguse for the second straight year. Fisher’s split was 3:54.23, and he ran a good race, taking the lead at the start of the penultimate homestretch and looking strong for most of the last lap. But Nuguse (3:56.02) overtook him and passed him 10y from the finish. “When I’m doing it for my team out there,” said Nuguse, “I give it all that I have, and it paid off tonight.” Notre Dame’s winning time was 9:31.55.

Geordie Beamish had the best kick in winning a “tactical” 4:07 mile. (ERROL ANDERSON/THE SPORTING IMAGE)

One of the most anticipated individual events of the meet was the pole vault. Mondo Duplantis was the overwhelming favorite, after having set a CR of 19-5 (5.92) at the SEC 2 weeks earlier, but behind him was the deepest field in the history of the event. Every one of the 16 qualifiers for the meet had vaulted 18-½ (5.50) or better and 9 of those had season’s bests of at least 18-5½ (5.63). Vault aficionados were salivating over the quality of the field and the prospective quality of the competition.

It did turn out to be a spectacular event, in more ways than one. Never before had more than two men cleared more than 18-4½ (5.60) in the meet, but in Birmingham 7 cleared 18-5½ (5.63) and another 2 passed that height. The bar was then raised to 18-7½ (5.68). A half-dozen attempted that height and 3 passed. Only 1 cleared the bar—Jacob Wooten of Texas A&M. Or so it appeared at the time. But when it came time to raise the bar again, the officials realized that nobody had attempted 18-7½ at all. In fact, the bar had erroneously been set at 5.73 (18-9½). After a long discussion among the officials, athletes and others, it was decided that the bar should be reset to 5.68 and all of those who had failed at what they thought was 18-7½ (but wasn’t) should be given three more attempts. Wooten was given credit for his 18-9½, which was a PR and made him the No. 10 American collegian ever.

Only one vaulter, Matt Ludwig of Akron, took advantage of the additional attempts and cleared 18-7½. The bar was then properly raised to 18-9½. Ludwig joined those who had passed 18-7½ in attempting 18-9½. Duplantis and South Dakota’s Chris Nilsen cleared it and Duplantis went on to clear 18-11½ (5.78) and 19-1½ (5.83) before making three unsuccessful tries at 19-5¾, which would have been a world leader/Collegiate Record. So the CR and meet record remained intact, but the marks of placers 3–15 were the best ever for those places at the championships.

Needless to say, the long delay in sorting out consequences of the erroneous bar placement confused the spectators and surely took its toll on the athletes remaining in the competition when that happened. Duplantis said, “It was a little crazy, hectic, kind of like a circus—not exactly what I expected—but I got the win and that’s all that matters.”

Although Duplantis didn’t get his world-leading mark, two other men did—Holloway and South Carolina State senior Tyrell Richard, who won the 400 in 44.82. That made him the No. 5 performer in world history and No. 4 among Americans and collegians.

For more details on individual-event results, check out our Friday and Saturday recaps.